Rory had knocked again. Chance turned to her. “I think we might have a bigger problem.” He tilted his head toward the window. “Have a look.”
She held his gaze, the dread and reluctance in her eyes shining through as she joined him at the window. With her handscupped around her eyes, she leaned forward and peered inside. Almost immediately she drew back.
“His stuff is all gone.” She shook her head. “I came by here once to leave a document for him. I’ve been in that room. There was a small sectional sofa. A television.” Her head moved side to side again. “His grandmother left him this house.” She scanned the yard again. “There’s no For Sale sign. But maybe he moved. And… I…don’t know. Why would Patterson lie about where he was?”
“The same reason he dropped the ball on your case, I suspect.” Chance stepped away from the porch and had a look first on one side of the house, then the other. “We could ask a neighbor or go around back and look through a few more windows.”
“Ask a neighbor,” she suggested. “I’m not too keen on the idea of getting myself arrested if some attentive neighbor calls the police.”
“Good point.” He jerked his head to the right. “Let’s try this one.”
They walked back to the sidewalk rather than cross the yards and made their way to the next house. Rory had just knocked on the storm door when a vehicle passing on the street drew Chance’s attention. It was the same truck from the park. Shane Carter’s truck. This time the man didn’t wave. He looked away quickly and sped up.
“The Carter guy just drove past again.”
Rory followed his gaze and made a confused face. “Why would he be following us and then just driving by? If he has something to tell me, why not stop or call me?”
“Good question.”
Just then, the wood door behind the glass storm door opened. An elderly woman peered out at them. “If you’re selling something,” she grumbled, “you can just move along.”
Rory smiled brightly no matter that she had little to smile about. “Hi, I’m a friend of Leonard’s. I was hoping to catch him, but he doesn’t seem to be home.”
The woman frowned. “If you’re a friend of his, why don’t you know where he is?”
Chance bit back a grin. Savvy lady.
“I just got back in town,” Rory explained. “I’ve been gone for a while, and I wanted to surprise him.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, but then she appeared to relax. “Well, you won’t find him around here. He moved.”
“Really?” Rory shot Chance a look. “He’s not just on vacation or something?” she asked the neighbor.
“Nope.” She wagged her head side to side. “Last weekend he had a free-for-all going on over there. People was backing up in the grass and loading stuff up. He gave away all his furniture. When the people stopped coming, I went out there and asked him what was going on. He said he was moving, and he didn’t want to take much of anything with him.”
“Did he say where he was moving to?” Chance asked.
Her gaze narrowed again when she looked at Chance. “He did not. Just said he was moving on.” She turned back to Rory. “A friend of mine at church who knows his mother said he was moving for work, but he didn’t tell me that. Whatever his reason for moving, his mother was packing up to go with him. Seemed kind of odd to me. One Sunday she was talking about the cantata she hoped to sing at church, and the next Sunday she’s moving away.”
“Thank you for telling me.” Rory offered a smile that went nowhere near her eyes and turned away from the door.
Chance followed. When they were back in his car, he rested his attention on her. “We should talk to Patterson again, but first I’d like to visit with Carter and find out why he feels compelled to check in on us.”
“I have his number,” Rory said. “I added it to my contact list.”
While she made the call, Chance considered that Carter might see him as some sort of threat to Rory. Or maybe the man was aware of some other potential threat but wasn’t prepared to talk about it. There was also the possibility that he had a thing for Rory and didn’t like another man getting in the way.
“He’s not answering.” Rory ended the call.
“Do you know where he lives?” Chance started the engine.
“Yes.” She scoffed. “Well, I know where he lived two years ago.”
As of now, Wade, Patterson and Shane Carter had claimed top spots on Chance’s persons of interest list. The rub appeared to be in finding the reasons behind their actions.
There was always a reason. Always.
Carter Residence
